Wow! I can’t believe our time at the JCC is nearly over. As of me writing this, it is the beginning of June and in a week me and my colleagues will be graduates from our PAVE Program. Looking back on everything has been quite bittersweet to say the least. I feel that I have learned quite a lot from my time here and really grown. I definitely feel I have gained quite a bit of work experience that I can take with me to a future job/career. I’ve had ups and downs along the way but I like to think that my time here has been mostly full of positives. It seems my boss would agree on that as when I asked him to reflect on his time working with me he described the experience as “an honor and one of the most impactful things he has done here.”

My colleagues seem to have also greatly benefited from PAVE. Erin told me about how she learned a lot from working in both cleaning and in the café departments. She also mentioned how she is looking to get a job here in the café full time after PAVE is finished. I’m pretty sure my good friend Caty was offered a job in the human resources department which she happily accepted, so that’s one more person who gained a job from PAVE.  Even those who didn’t get job offers still benefited greatly from their time with the PAVE Program. KK for instance has learned to follow through on completing difficult tasks. According to her supervisor Sandy, both KK and Maia have really opened up to others compared to how shy and closed off they seemed to be starting out. Speaking of Maia, she also claims to have greatly improved at being more flexible with her work. Stating that she has “gotten better at following directions overall.” One major thing I forgot to mention which I guess motivates us to work harder is being around supporting and friendly people. Which is a common theme when asking my co workers about how they have been impacted by working here at the JCC.

Ilana has said that her friendly coworkers has allowed her to better advocate for herself on the job. Giving out tours has also allowed to meet other friendly people that make Ilana feel all the more welcome. I mentioned earlier that Maia improved at being more flexible with completing her work but she said that “the people here have taught me how to apply a lot of new skills and use them to help complete certain projects.” So really Maia’s growth may not have been as easy for her if she didn’t have the support to guide her. We don’t just rely on others to help us all the time though. A lot of us have learned important skills ourselves. Using myself as an example there have been days where Derek has been absent and I have had to complete tasks with only a list of notes to guide me. It was hard at first but with a little perspective taking I was able to figure out what I needed to do and get it done.

I touched on this a bit earlier but what I’ve observed, each of us have taken away something from this internship that we can use for actual jobs in the future. Meanwhile Ilana has also been learning better organization skills and became neater with her work in the process. Caty has learned so much about handling computer software which she described as a “very important tool to use in today’s world.” Erin has worked in three departments so she clearly has learned a lot about not just cleaning better but also working behind the counter at the café. Not to mention the paperwork she learned from working alongside Ilana. I guess you could say that Erin has a little bit of everything to use wherever she goes next. She backed this up by stating that she “really liked the fun of working different department always taking away something from each of them to help me get better with how I work overall.”

These past nine months have been quite an experience that I will never forget and I don’t think my colleagues will forget this either. After all, over the course of the program we each have grown in so many ways. From gaining new skills to becoming more independent and self-advocate with completing our tasks. Not to mention building our resumes and reputation we can use to apply for our next jobs after PAVE. We couldn’t accomplish everything alone, I think all of us are extremely thankful towards our supervisors and co-workers for guiding us along the way and ensuring we have most of if not all the skills we need to apply ourselves moving forward. So, thanks to the JCC for having us and we promise to do our best in the future.